How Do I Explain This
by messersmontana
Summary: This came to me after watching The Ex-Files on Friday. This is how I wish she'd tell Zane what was going on


How Do I Explain This

This came to me after watching The Ex-Files on Friday. This is how I wish she'd tell Zane what was going on. Now I'm not looking forward to them going back to their own time line. At least not if it looks like Jack is the only one who will remember this time line and him and Allison together.

This story is dedicated to Katie, who is in need of cheering up. She's not feeling well right now. So this is for you sweetie.

I love hearing what y'all think about my stories, thanks so much.

As usual, I only own my story, not the characters.

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Jo couldn't believe that she'd just told the wrong Zane that she was done. How was she going to explain this one to him. She didn't know that the ring he'd given her when he proposed, had been his grandmother's ring. Now she didn't even have that from her time line. What had she done?

She's been seeing her Zane all week and even though she knew that he was only her imagination or hallucination, she loved him even more now than she did before she left him behind in her time line. While she'd been seeing her Zane, Carter was seeing Nathan Stark and Allison was seeing Tess. Poor Fargo was seeing a little girl from his childhood, Jessica Lansky, and she seemed to be a childhood bully on top of it.

Now Zane was in the jail again, only this time she was pretty sure he was innocent. She looked through the envelope that he'd given her and it looked like her was being framed. She needed to go and talk to him and she needed to do it now. She got up and headed out for the Sheriff's Office. She only hoped that she had the right words to explain this to him.

As she got into her car, she wondered what he would say to her if she told him what was going on. She hoped that he would keep it to himself what she told him, but she knew that she had to tell him the truth, or it would just make matters worse. She was hoping that telling him would make him understand or at least make things easier between them. Once he realizes that she wasn't the Jo Lupo who hated him and did everything to give him hell, he might see her for the Jo she was and not the one he hated.

She pulled up in front of the Sheriff's Office and got out of her car. Andy was sitting at his desk when she walked in. "Hey Andy. Is there a way that I could talk to Zane?" She asked him.

"Sure thing Miss Lupo." He told her with that stupid smile on his face.

She waited for Andy to leave, but he just sat there, still smiling and looking at her. "Uh, Andy. I meant can I talk to Zane alone?"

"Oh, I see. Sure, I don't think that Sheriff Carter will mind if I leave him with you alone. Call me when you're done with him." He said as he got up and walked out of the office.

It was now or never, and she was afraid how he would react to her news. She turned around and looked at him. He was staring at her just like he had that first day when she'd told him that she would marry him, only to have him ask her, in what universe. "Hey."

"Hey? Is that all you have to say to me after throwing my grandmother's ring at me, and I'm not even sure how you got it in the first place. What's going on Lupo?" He asked her as he got up off of the cot and moved to the bars.

"Listen Zane, what I have to tell you is unbelievable, and you can't tell anyone about it. You have to promise me before I tell you." She said as she moved over to the bars where he stood.

He looked at her and frowned. "I'm not sure I should promise, but I'll give you a break. Yeah, I promise to keep this to myself, if you promise to get me out of here. I'm innocent here Lupo, and you have to know it." He said.

"Yes, I know you're innocent. I will try to get you out of here. I've already left Carter a message. I told him about your proof. Do you still promise?" She asked him.

He smiled at her in his most annoying way, that always drove her crazy. "Yeah, I still promise Lupo. So, what is it you're going to tell me? How did you end up with my grandmother's ring?"

She took a deep breath, this was not going to be easy. "Okay, I don't know how to say this. I guess I should just come out and say it. I'm not from here." She said.

He looked at her with a confused look on his face. "What do you mean, you're not from here? You've been in Eureka longer than me."

She tried to find the right words. "I'm not from this time line Zane. This is not my Eureka."

He looked at her like she was crazy, he started to laugh. "Yeah right Lupo. That's a good one. Tell me really how you got the ring."

"I'm telling you the truth Zane. I was sent back in time to 1947, and when I was able to get back to 2010, I was sent to this Eureka instead of my own. Things are different in this Eureka than they are in mine." She tried to explain.

"Okay, saying that I believe you, which is hard to do because time travel isn't possible. What are the differences, and how did you get this ring?" He asked her again.

"Well, in my Eureka Henry and Grace aren't married, they'd just met before I went back to 1947." She told him, not mentioning that the others had gone back to 1947 with her. "Allison was the head of GD instead of Fargo. He just worked at GD, in fact he was Stark's assistant before he died. Kevin Blake was autistic in my Eureka and Zoe was dating Lucas even while she was at Harvard." She explained to him.

"That doesn't tell me about you and why you have this ring. How were things different for you and me in your Eureka?" He asked, still not sure he believed her.

"I wasn't head of security at GD in my time line. I was Carter's deputy still, and Andy had left town after he realized he had a say in what he did in his life. I had a perfect life, I had my dream job and my dream guy. I was happy until I lost it all." She told him.

"What does that mean? You had your dream guy? Who was it and why aren't you with him here?" He asked her getting a little jealous.

"Let me explain it better. You and I were together in my Eureka. I walked into work that morning and you were in this cell, just like the first day we met. I asked you what you were doing there, and you told me that you were reminding me how we first met. You had a ring for me, that ring, hidden in a Liza's Lingerie box, and you asked me to marry you." She told him.

He shook his head. "I asked you to marry me? That can't be, we don't like each other."

"In this time line we don't, or the other Jo and you hated each other. I never hated you Zane, in this time line or my own. I could never hate you." She told him.

He tried to find holes in her story. "So, we're engaged in your time line. Why aren't you wearing the ring on your finger instead of around your neck?" He asked her.

She took another deep breath before going on. "Because I didn't get the chance to say yes. I froze and it was the worse mistake I ever made. You walked out of the office because I screwed up. I tried to go and find you, but then my cell phone rang and the next thing I knew I was in 1947."

'So that's why you came into the Sheriff's Office and said you'd marry me on Founder's Day? You thought you were telling the other Zane that you wanted to marry him?" He asked her as he touched her hand that was holding on tight to the bars.

"Yeah, I knew it was a mistake as soon as I saw how much pain I'd caused you...him when I didn't answer. I wanted to take that pain away and say yes. I love him...you more than I can say and I wanted you...him to know that I would be honored to be your wife. But it wasn't him, he was gone to me forever." She explained.

"So that's why you tried to help me clear my name when Mansfield wanted to cart me off to prison? Because of your Zane?" He asked her.

'Yeah, I knew that inside you had to be more like him than you were showing us. I had faith in you, there is good in you. You just needed time to prove it." She replied.

"You seem to have more faith in me than anyone else, including myself. Why is that?" He asked her.

"Because I've seen the good in you Zane. That's the man I fell in love with, and the one I wanted to spend the rest of my life with." She said sadly.

"Okay, saying that I'm like him. Does that mean you'd be willing to spend the rest of your life married to me?" He asked, almost afraid to hear her answer.

"You're more like him than you know. Everyday, I catch glimpses of the Zane I knew. Yeah, they're brief glimpses, but they're there. And yes, I'd be willing to spend the rest of my life with you." She replied.

"You do know that you just said yes without freezing, don't you?" He asked.

She smiled and nodded. "I did, didn't I?"

He leaned down and was going to kiss her when the door flew open, making them pull apart and look at the newcomer. Zoe came flying into the room and looked pissed. "Zane, are you okay? Has my dad treated you bad? Jo, leave him alone, he's not guilty, he couldn't have done it. Tell her Zane." She ranted on.

Jo tried to calm her down and pull her away from the cell. "I know he's innocent Zoe, and I'm sure your dad does too. I called him and left him a message."

"It's okay Zoe, I'm fine." He said getting through to her before Jo could.

"He's just doing this cause he doesn't want us together, but I don't care what he says. He can't keep us apart Zane." She told him, ignoring Jo, who was looking rather uncomfortable.

Zane could see how upset it was for Jo, it was that moment that he truly believed her. "Hey Jo, can I have a moment with Zoe? We can finish our conversation after I talk to Zoe."

"Sure, I'll go sit outside." She reluctantly said. It hurt her to know that he was with Zoe in this time line. Two people she loved most in Eureka and would do anything to never hurt, just happened to be the two people who were hurting her.

She sat on the step and watched the town go about their business. None of them knew about the differences, some small and some not so small. Henry was getting closer to Grace now. Carter and Allison finally got together and she had the new Kevin here. Fargo was Fargo, but he even loved this time line change, after all he was in charge of GD. She was pretty much the only one who lost something huge from her time line, the love of her life.

She was startled when Zoe walked out of the office at top speed, almost running over her. "Zoe, are you okay?" She got no answer from her so she got up and went back inside.

"Well that went well...not." Zane said as she walked in.

"What happened? Why did Zoe run out of here?" She asked him as she approached the cell. "She looked upset. What did you tell her Zane?"

He actually looked uncomfortable. "I told her that she just had a crush on me and that I was using it to upset her dad. I told her that I was too old for her and that she'd get over me." He explained.

"You broke her heart?" She asked with a shred of hope in her heart. It made her feel awful, but happy too.

"Yeah, I didn't want to do it, but there isn't a future for her and I. Not when I don't care for as much I do for someone else." He said.

She was afraid to hope. "Are you trying to say that you care more for me than her Zane?" She asked.

"Yeah, I am Lupo. Why do you think I've been such a pain in your ass?" He replied.

Now it was her turn to disbelieve him. "Is it me, or is it the other Jo that you have feelings for?"

"As much as I'd like to say the other Lupo, I can't. She really did hate me. I didn't see it until you got here, well for me it was since Founder's Day that I noticed something different in you. Does it make sense?" He asked her.

"Yeah, it does. So, now what?" She said.

"Well, first we have to get me out of here. Then, I want to give you back this ring." He told her.

"It's your ring Zane, it belongs to your grandmother." She said as she looked around for the keys that Carter usually left on his desk. She found them in Andy's desk and pulled them out. She went over to the cell and unlocked it.

"I want to give it back to you. It belongs on your finger, right where it should have been on Founder's day." He said as she unlocked the cell.

She froze and was afraid she was going to do it again. "What are you saying Zane?"

"I'm asking you to wear my ring again, I'm asking you to promise to marry me when we're ready to do it. It's a promise that you will one day become my wife and I will be your husband. Be my partner in life and we don't have to take our vows until we're both ready for it." He said as he got down on his knee just like he did before.

This time Jo didn't freeze, she held out her hand and let him put the ring on her finger. "Yes Zane, I'll marry you when we're both ready to take our vows together. I do love you Zane." She replied.

He got up and smiled at her. "You know what? I love you too Jo Jo." He said as he pulled her into his arms and kissed her.

This was the sweetest kiss she'd ever experienced, and she'd miss his lips on hers. Everything from here on out would be fine, they'd clear his name...again, and find out who framed him. Then, they'd get back to them. There would be a future for them and she was finally happy in this time line. She had Zane, and things were looking up for them.

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So, this is what I came up with after that scene where Jo broke up with the wrong Zane. I hope you liked it, thanks for reading...please review it. To those who are waiting for the series that I promised to do, I've been writing it all week, but haven't posted yet, I am almost ready to do it. I just have 3 more eps to write for it and I'll be ready to post it.


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